Category: Coffee Brewing Guides

Espresso Fundamentals

Espresso and espresso based drinks are notoriously difficult to get right. I see very often in commercial environments, baristas pulling shots that will never be reproducible. There is no weighing of the starting mass, end mass or timing of shot length. This is quite probably true of most home scenarios too. Therefore, I thought it would be worthwhile writing about the three most important considerations in producing espresso:

Dose, Yield and Time.

Consider making an espresso to be akin to baking or cooking. You need a recipe. You need to begin with something, end with something and it will take a period of time for the process to happen. In our industry we focus on the dose as our beginning and the yield as our end point.

The espresso dose should not change once you decide on your recipe. It must stay consistent, through weighing in, in order to create a consistent drink mass. The dose mass governs the size of the drink you wish to have. A large espresso needs a larger dose. A small espresso needs a smaller dose. You should not consider changing the dose in order to change the balance of flavour, shot time or strength of drink. Only change the dose if you need more or less espresso.

This consideration on dose mass should be applied to your milk based drinks too. If you require a greater balance of coffee to milk, use a larger dose. Conversely, if you prefer the balance shifting towards milk, use a smaller starting dose mass. You could use this methodology when choosing your cup size. Greater the total volume of cup may require a larger dose according to taste. As a rule of thumb, I tend to use between 17g and 19g as my dose for the majority of my drinks and design our Jones espresso blend to suit this mass for most milk based drinks.

In summary, only change the dose mass when choosing the size of your espresso – big or small.

Brew Instructions

Put the paper filter into the AeroPress cap and thoroughly rinse with hot water to remove any paper taints

Weigh out 15grams of whole bean coffee and grind the coffee a bit finer than filter drip (or use your pre-ground coffee from us)

Place your AeroPress in an inverted position onto your scales and pour in the ground coffee – tare the scales

Start your timer and pour in enough water to cover the grinds – 100g

Stir through to 20 seconds using the bundled paddle

Pour in the remaing water to bring your total water weight to 225g

Allow to stand through to 1:10 – fix filter cap whilst doing so

At 1:10 invert the AeroPress onto your mug / decanter

Plunge slowly through to 2:00

Drink & enjoy!

[/ordered_list]
The Aerobie AeroPress is a great platform to practice the intrecacies of brewing good coffee. Do not be afraid to play around with your brew methods. The recipe above will help you on your journey. However, please also check brewmethods.com for a other variations.

How do you make the perfect cafetiere of coffee? Well, the instructions below will get you pretty close to a perfect cup and importantly, be able to replicate it time and time again.

Firstly, there a few tools that you will require, so go ahead and put together everything on the ‘tools’ list:

[unordered_list style=”tick”]

Cafetiere of your choice

Freshly roasted, coarse ground coffee

Your favourite coffee mug

Measuring scales – kitchen scales will be perfect

Spoon

Stopwatch

Kettle

Filtered water / bottled water

[/unordered_list]

Once you have the items above, you’re ready to make the best cafetiere of coffee ever and this is how to achieve it:

[ordered_list style=”decimal”]

Fill your kettle with your filtered water and begin to heat

Work out how many millilitre’s your cafetiere is – an 8 cup is usually around 1000ml

Place your cafetiere onto your measuring scales and ‘tare’ the weight so that with the cafetiere on, the weight is zero

With the volume of your cafetiere understood, we need to firstly decide on your desired weight of coffee. We use a range of 60 – 75g per 1000ml depending on the coffee. As a rule of thumb, let’s start with 60g per 1000ml

With our weight of 60g per 1000ml decided, let’s do some maths! So for an 8 cup cafetiere we would need to measure in 60g of freshly ground coffee. For a 4 cup at 600ml we would need to do: 60 / 1000 * 600 = 36g. Using this equation we can work out exactly how much coffee to use each and every time you make your cafetiere.

Place your mathematically decided weight of coffee into the cafetiere and ‘tare’ the weight once more

The cafeteire and coffee will equal zero weight and this is to precisely measure the volume and weight of water

Pour water over the ground coffee until the bed is fully wet and stop (short of your full amount). We are attempting to create a bloom, where water pre-infuses the dry coffee. As soon as you pour – start your stop watch!

After 30 seconds, pour the remaining water into the cafetiere, covering all the coffee until your target weight has been achieved. In this case 1000ml for our 8 cup cafetiere

Stir three times

Once 4 minutes is reached, gently remove the floating grinds by scooping them out with your spoon. This will leave less mess later on

Attach the plunger and plunge. This would take about 10 – 20 seconds to achieve and shouldn’t feel too ‘stiff’. If it does, the coffee may have been ground slightly too fine

Poor some remaining water from the kettle into your mug and discard. This is solely to pre-heat the cup

Once the plunge has been completed, pour your coffee into your cup and enjoy!

[/ordered_list]

The fifteen steps above are meant as a guide. Please alter where necessary to fine tune against each coffee you try.

If you come across any other variations of how to make the perfect cafetiere, do feel free to email us!

Firstly we would like to point out that a stove top / Moka Pot is not a method used to make an espresso, only espresso machines can do that! Instead, we use moka pots to make a strong, deep and balanced coffee.

So, as set out in our guide to make the perfect cafetiere, what equipment will we need before we get started? The list below will be everything you require:

1 – Never use cold water in the bottom section of your stove top, use freshly boiled water instead. Why? Using boiled water helps speed the process along somewhat and it means the stove top doesn’t spend as much time exposed to heat. Exposing your moka pot to heat for any length of time will damage the coffee.

2 – Once the kettle has boiled (preferably using carbon filtered water), fill the base of your moka pot with the water until it reaches the pressure valve.

3 – Using your freshly ground (medium-fine) coffee, add this to the brew basket which has been sat on your scales and ‘tared’. By doing this, you will be able to measure the coffee weight for repeating in the future. Why medium-coarse and not close to an espresso grind? Well, using too finely ground coffee will give you a very strong and bitter cup, I’ll explain why. The water passed over the coffee grinds in a stove top is not at boiling point, it’s the steam collected in the base that acts as the propellant and because of this, the pressure required is about 8 times less than that in an espresso machine. Therefore the coffee grinds don’t have to be as fine.

4 – Smooth off the coffee grinds so it is flush to the brew basket lip, but there’s no need to compress it. Once again, by compressing the coffee we run the risk of over extracting it.

5 – Making sure the rubber seal is clean, place the brew basket into the bottom section and attach the top section. Do not over-tighten and remember, there’s boiling water in the base, so use the dry cloth as mentioned above to avoid burning yourself!

6 – Place your moka pot onto the heat.

7 – After a short period of time, coffee will begin to appear from the spout and deposited into the top container. It’s at this point we need to keep our ears open!

8 – We only want water to pass through the coffee, not steam (again to avoid over extracting our coffee). As soon as you begin to hear a bubbling or gurgling noise, remove the moka pot from the heat and wrap the base in your cold wet cloth. Doing so will prevent the heat rising further and as above… reduce the risk over extraction.

9 – Pour and enjoy!

By using the method set out above, we guarantee that you’ll be able to produce the perfect cup of coffee from your moka pot / stove top every time!

The ideal grinding practice is to grind immediately before you brew whilst achieving the finest grind possible without clogging the paper filter, or, if using a cafetiere, releasing too much sediment into the cup. The purpose of grinding is to effectively increase the surface area of the coffee exposed to the water, so as much of the flavour oils can enter the brew. Fine grinds result in more flavourful, economical coffee. However, If it’s too fine that it produces undesirable sediment in the cup, or the brewing time is lengthened because the paper filter clogs, you have ground too fine. Practice will make perfect.

Use a good grinder. The best grinding method available to those who brew their coffee at home is a plate and burr grinding device. Plate grinders can clog easily but make fairly even grinds. While burr grinders wear down eventually, but result in the most even grind in non-commercial devices. The ideal burr grinder is a hand-cranked unit, but there are other excellent electric models for espresso like the Gaggia MDF.

Now… Some General Coffee Brewing Tips

1) Choose a brewing method that is right for you and if you are happy with your method, stick to it!

2) Don’t use cheap filter paper. Cheap filters clog easily, forcing you to grind coarser, use more coffee and detract from the resulting body of the coffee as well as flavour.

3) Use clean water (this tip may sound daft, but it is extremely important)!. The ideal water would be free from chemicals such as chlorine, but would retain its mineral content. Therefore, the ideal water for coffee making is bottled spring water. Please remember, the wrong water can ruin your coffee.

4) Brew at the correct temperature. The Ideal water temperature for brewing is 90-95 degrees Celsius. Bring your water to a boil, wait between 1-2 minutes, then brew.

5) Use enough coffee but don’t use too much. The rule is 7g of ground coffee per cup, which equates to a heaped tablespoon or two level desert spoons. If you use too small an amount, the best flavours and aromas will not be achieved. However, use too much coffee and the flavour and body become unpleasantly strong, and syrupy.

6) Keep things clean. The build-up in your coffee-making equipment will not add to your coffee’s flavour. Lime scale build-up in a coffee maker reduces the temperature the machine can attain; it coats the heating coil and therefore may never reach its optimum temperature. This case is also is true for espresso machines. We recommend that the machines get regularly cleaned with a good de-scale.

7) Coffee is fresh for no more than 10 minutes after brewing. So once 10 minutes has passed, please make a fresh ‘pot’.

8) Finally take time your time to enjoy the cup of coffee you have made!

A Tip On Tasting Coffee

Knowing how to differentiate between the aromas and flavours coffee produces can be very difficult and time consuming to achieve.

However, a starting point (that will make you look ridiculous) is to chew your drink! Take a mouthful of coffee once it has cooled slightly, then pretend it is like solid food in your mouth, chew it twice and then let it leave your mouth for a couple of seconds before swallowing. This will circulate the coffee around your palate very effectively and increases the time span in which it remains in your mouth, thus giving the best possible chance to distinguish all the flavours.

Once the above method has been achieved, we suggest that you sample two different varieties side by side. That is, brew two different coffee beans and try to spot the differences between the two cups, otherwise known as cupping.

Brewing Coffee In A Cafetiere

1) Pull the lid and plunger out of the glass beaker. Put one coffee measure (7g is the standard per 120-150ml of water – or a heaped desert spoon) into the beaker per cup (this works out to roughly 1.5 measurements per ‘mug’ of coffee). We strongly recommend working out how many cups/mugs you want to make and only add water that suits your desired amount, rather than diluting the coffee by over filling the water.

2) Pour the correct amount of 90 to 95 degrees Celsius water into the press, slowly at first to avoid creating a dry island of coffee grounds. Allow the coffee to float to the surface. Don’t overfill the press. The water/coffee needs to be just at, or a little below the bottom of the beaker spout.

4) Pick up the plunger by the knob so that the lid is down against the screen. Place it lightly on top of the press so that it keeps the heat in, but does not start to push down on the coffee at all. Leave it for 2 minutes.

5) After 2 minutes remove the lid and briefly stir the coffee with a spoon, This will agitate the coffee to bring out even more flavour.

6) After another minute or 90 seconds, give the coffee one last ‘stir’ then begin to plunge. Hold the lid in place with one hand and carefully start to push on the knob at the top to force the plunger screen downward, pushing the grinds with it to the bottom. If coffee grinds escape, pull the plunger out, rinse quickly in hot water, and start the plunge again.

7) Pushing steadily on the plunger should mean that it reaches the bottom in 20-30 seconds. Pour, serve, and don’t save it! Coffee is at its best within the first 10 minutes of brewing.

Brewing Coffee In A Moka Pot

1) Fill the bottom with fresh water up to the level of the valve.

2) Fill the filter basket with coffee. The grind should be fine, but not powdery, about the same as for a fine filter drip. Do not pack the coffee or tamp it down. As the coffee becomes wet, it will expand so it effectively tamps itself.

3) Drop the filter basket into the bottom, assemble the top of the coffee maker and then heat on a low to medium heat.

4) Brewing should take 5 minutes. If it takes longer, try increasing the heat a bit next time. Brewing has completed when all the water has been percolated into the top.

Making the perfect Espresso

1) Coffee freshness is paramount – ideally fresh beans should be used and ground as close to the brewing time as possible (the grind setting is absolutely critical as this will affect the pressure that is achieved in the filter basket).

2a) Measure the correct quantity of coffee into the filter basket, leaving the coffee to lie in a flat and even manner.

2b) To brew a single shot, you will use 7 grams of coffee for between 30ml- 40ml of water. For a double shot, you’ll basically double those quantities – 14 grams of coffee and 60ml-80ml of water. No matter if you’re brewing a single or double shot, extracting the espresso should take between 20 to 25 seconds.

3) Tamping (pressing down on the coffee) is vital – the firmness of the ‘tamp’ varies the pressure in the filter basket and hence, the all-important extraction time. The ideal pressure is 30lbs, which is a ‘push’ on the coffee grinds (you can test the pressure needed by applying a ‘push’ on your bathroom scales). Learning to apply a consistent 30lbs of pressure will reduce the number of variables inmaking the perfect espresso.

4) Make sure the water temperature is between 90-95 degrees Celsius. If the water is too hot or cold, it will adversely affect the taste of the resulting espresso.

5) In order to brew a proper espresso, hot water must be forced through the coffee grounds at around 8 or 9 BAR of pressure – roughly 135 PSI. The pump inside every espresso machine is designed to produce these exact measurements of pressure, so this is not something you will need to control yourself.

By following the above steps, you should be producing good quality cups of coffee. However, as with all coffee drinks, practice makesperfect!

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here:
Cookie Policy